Yes, sick.

I don't get sick often, but when I do...agh. I get hit hard. I didn't get to bed until late on Tuesday night (for obvious reasons), so I blamed sleep deprivation and a hard lesson for my Wednesday fatigue. I used the same excuses to explain my "blahs" on Thursday, at least until after my Latin class. Then, I actually took a nap. A half-hour nap (which is long for me, as I usually don't take naps) became an hour nap, and eventually I decided to surrender and sleep on and off for the rest of the afternoon and into the night.
Eventually, I woke up and couldn't move. I was weak and achy, my stomach was upset, I was alternating fever and chills, and I had an awful headache, so I assumed I was getting the flu. My inability to move was made all the more tragic because it was terribly difficult for me to climb out of bed. I've got a loft bed at school, and it can be difficult to climb down safely even under normal conditions. My roommates were really nice to me, though. One of them left the room to talk on her cell phone because I was "sleeping" (actually, lying there and wishing it were possible to sleep more), and the other was actually concerned when I banged my knee up against the safety bar.
I popped a few ibuprofen when I mustered the strength to work my way down the ladder, and that really helped me. I also wet a towel to help keep me cool when I started getting too hot. Even though I felt terrible and showed plenty of telltale flu signs, I never developed any of the nastier symptoms. I guess I'm pretty lucky.
On Friday, I ended up skipping my Human Animal class. I took a walk halfway across campus early that morning. The rain felt wonderful, but I was gasping for breath at the end of such a short walk. I went to the campus center to get a disposable thermometer, which I couldn't figure out how to read, and quickly decided that I was too weak to make it all the way to class without collapsing on the stairs. After that, I only had to worry about my chemistry lab. Missing a lab is something you just don't do. They're worth a whole lot and they aren't hard, so I make sure I do them well to help my grade. It's also impossible to make them up unless you plan in advance.
I did end up going to lab. I think it was a mistake, but at least the lab didn't take very long. We did a bunch of reactions involving magnesium, water, and various acids and bases. Some of the reactions were pretty cool, I'll admit. One of them made a beautiful purple solution, and one solution went from a brilliant, bright color to colorless once we stirred it. Some of the reactions involving HCl were spectacularly fizzy, and I enjoyed heating stuff over the bunsen burner, as always. Yeah, it wasn't a bad lab at all. It really wasn't. I felt terrible the whole time, though, and walking across campus twice really took a toll on me. I made it, though, and now I'm home and feeling much better.
I'm actually eating (rather inappropriate stuff for someone who was just sick) now, and I'm slowly regaining my strength. I did manage to go out to the barn for a bit today. There was a 4-H braiding clinic that I thought I'd attend just for the meeting portion. I hugged on Stella while she was eating in the paddock, sat through the meeting and the braiding demonstration, and snuck out after offering my starving buddies a few chocolate chip cookies. I also ate a cookie or two, but my stomach is fine now and I really do feel a lot better.
I normally don't go more than a couple of hours without nibbling on something, and I quit eating early on Thursday afternoon. By Friday afternoon, I was doubled over with hunger pains. I ate a handful of cereal and that made me feel a whole lot better.
IT'S CHRISTMAS IN APRIL.
Gretchen just dropped by to give me a Christmas/birthday gift. It's always so great to see her.
I think it's funny how I wanted to be a teacher when I was in high school, and she wanted to a pharmacist. Now, she wants to be a teacher and I'm doing something I thought I'd given up on. There are so many people from high school who were dead-set on a career and now they're jumping around, trying new things, learning about themselves, and changing their plans to fit. There's nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, I think it's brilliant. We're all learning, and half of it's not even within the walls of an academic building. Well, at least I am.
Meh. Hungry...